Chapter 6:A village

*Singing* *Singing* *Singing*

The birds singing in the morning and the smell of ash in the air are the first things to enter my senses as I regain consciousness. 

"I'm still here... I'm still here."

"Obviously or maybe you're sleepwalking?"

Having trouble accepting this situation and pondering out loud, I am brought out of this state by an older voice, though it maintains a great vitality I have to say. 

"You're real, better not answer that. Saya truth, are you ready to leave?"

Lifting my body from the grass, I noticed the sword resting beside me, then picked it up, and moved towards the river to wash my face to wash away the little sleep that still resides in me. 

"Sure and I can tell there is a village nearby, this thanks to the missing grasses in the vicinity of the river."

"That's great news you've got there, so on your way there's no time to waste."

I don't consider myself a sociable person and even less so after my family childhood... Traumas!!!, but this situation is special, I need a human just for being human. 

With new hope and a lot of energy to expend, we or it would be me, you know he's a pod, so I'll take him, if we'd better put that aside we start moving down the river again until civilization!

"It's a village, isn't it, isn't it!"

"If the humans haven't changed, then yes, although I don't understand your excitement, it is known that foxes mostly live together with humans, but is your happiness to see them so much?"

In front of us the river splits in half into two large streams that surround the village, from these two streams come out small veins of water that are guided to crop fields and then rejoin to disappear into the river.

A wooden bridge connects the village with the outside world while a half meter fence stands to protect the village, looking further in, the village is composed of about 15 wooden houses with different sizes, although all share that design of wood and blue tiles as a roof, except one in particular. This one was large by at least 3 of the other houses combined, located in the center of the village and with finer details than the rest. 

"Can you see them Saya, see them, there's no one here!"

Yes, the dirt roads linking the different houses, farmland and the road to the well are completely empty of human life, the only sign of this being the cries of animals every so often. 

"Quiet young man, something may have happened, from thieves, man-eating demons to malevolent spirits, instead of lamenting here it's easier to go in and ask."

Emerging from the sword sheath, first as a small sphere of light to then expand to her 30cm, Saya appears to calm my spirits and redirect my attention to the truly important thing of finding people. 

"You're right, I can't just stand here and do nothing."

Nodding towards Saya and giving her a few words, I start walking, arriving in a few moments at the wooden bridge and in a few minutes I am inside the village. 

Inside the village were all the doors closed, the houses in sepulchral silence and at some point even the noise of the animals seemed completely silenced.

*Hit* *Hit* *Hit*

"Hello, is anyone there?"

Wait, how are they going to understand me if I'm speaking English? No, so how have I been talking to Saya, if at all times he was speaking and responding to me in Japanese, that means I now speak Japanese naturally... well, one more oddity to the list. 

"It seems to me that even if you stand in front of the house any longer, they're not going to come out."

"A spirit!"

Shaking my head sideways to get the language issue out of my head, not the weirdest thing that's ever happened, heard a muffled scream from the distance causing me to turn my body faster than I thought possible, but this backfired due to the girl running off as she lets out a scream at full volume. 

"Wait young man, don't chase her!"

Each of my steps were like 10 of hers, I don't know where that speed or physical strength came from, what I do know is that in a few moments I was almost catching up to her, noticing that she makes a half turn and starts running towards a house to hide from me. 

"Wait, stop!"

I had shouted that as a matter of course, it was the first human being I saw after all this strange situation, I was desperate ok, feeling a strange energy leave my body and move quickly towards the girl, she stops dead in her tracks as if freezing her. 

"So this is the so called fox charm, even without seeing her and just with your voice you got her to do what you want, quite interesting if it won't work only on humans"

"What, now I can control people with my voice, uoo."

Before I can finish talking to Saya or try to approach the static girl, a fluctuation in the air behind my back makes me turn to the right, while incidentally making a sound effect with my mouth. 

"Get away from my daughter, you fucking demon!"

Arranging my stance to face the opponent, I guide my hand to the cloudy fang hilt while analyzing the opponent. He was a young man, 20 to 25 years old max, white skin with lean musculature, black hair and dark eyes, all very normal of an average Japanese. 

"HaaHaa!"

Throwing a shout into the air to gain confidence, he attacks me with a slash from the top towards the bottom with full force, I simply move to the side and seeing that he couldn't rearrange his sword, he threw a quick slash with mine towards his causing it to dig harder into the ground and he was disarmed. 

"Hello, I am."

"Touma, don't be afraid, we're here!"

Without being able to introduce myself after this little mishap, I am surrounded from all corners by young men with farm tools wearing yukatas and gnawed pleated blouse pant sets, obviously villagers from the village, these ones hands are shaking as their eyes wander all over the place. 

"Stop, stop, we are not beasts to treat our guests in such a manner!"

Dividing the crowd around me, an old man begins to speak and he must have great influence, as the villagers say nothing against him and those who try are silenced by his gaze.